[N?..69.] REPORTS AND PAPERS. 217 
and length. I counted fourteen bunches on his back, the first one, 
say ten or twelve feet from his head, and the others about seven 
feet apart. They decreased in size towards the tail. These bunches 
were sometimes counted with, and sometimes without a glass. Mr. 
Malbone counted thirteen, Mr. Blake thirteen and fourteen, and 
the boatman about the same number. His motion was sometimes 
very rapid, and at other times he lay nearly still. He turned 
slowly, and took up considerable room in doing it. He sometimes 
darted under water, with the greatest velocity, as if seizing prey. 
The protuberances were not from his motion, as they were the 
same whether in slow or rapid movement. His motion was partly 
vertical and partly horizontal, like that of fresh water snakes. | 
have been much acquainted with the snakes in our interior waters. 
His motion was the same. I have given you in round numbers, 
one hundred feet, for his length, that is, what we saw; but I 
should say he must be one hundred and thirty feet in length, 
allowing for his tail. There were a considerable number of birds 
about the sea-serpent as I have seen them about a snake on shore. 
That there is an aquatic animal in the form of a snake, is not to 
be doubted. Mr. Malbone, till this day, was incredulous. No man 
would now convince him, there was not such a being. The sketch 
or picture of Marshal Prince, is perfectly correct. I could not, 
with my own pencil, give a more correct likeness.” 
“With respect’ 
“Your obedient servant’ 
“Cheever Felch” 
| “Major B. Russell.” 
I will not contest Mr. Frnca’s opinion about Mr. Princr’s figure! 
As to the letter itself there is not a single statement which can 
detract from or add to our present notions of the sea-serpent. 
In 1846 Col. T. H. Prrxins, of whom we have spoken more 
than once, requested Mr. Borron, who was first Lieutenant of the 
Independence in 1819, to send him some particulars about this ap- 
pearance. Mr. Bonton promptly replied under date of July 14, 
1846. This letter, published by Col. Perkins in the Boston Daily 
Advertiser of Nov. 25, 1848, runs as follows: 
“In the year 1817 I was the first lieutenant of the Independence , 
of 74 guns, then lying in the harbour of Boston.” 
“In the course of the spring or summer a party of officers were 
detailed, by order of Commodore Bainbridge, to survey the coast of the 
bay, to a limited extent northeastward and outside of the light-house.” 
